Obama to pick Sotomayor for Supreme Court-official
Tue May 26, 2009 8:42am EDT

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has decided to nominate Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat being vacated by liberal Justice David Souter, a White House official said.

Sotomayor would be the first Latino member of the nine-member U.S. high court, which decides such divisive social issues as abortion and the death penalty as well as business and property rights cases.

An announcement of the nomination was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. (1415 GMT), the White House official said, speaking on condition on anonymity.

Since Souter, 69, belonged to the court's liberal wing, Obama's nomination of Sotomayor was considered unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the court. The court's members are appointed for life but require Senate confirmation.

Sotomayor, 54, is a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and a graduate of Yale Law School.


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